Monday, February 18, 2013

With the
Keystone Pipeline (among others) making the news cycle in both Canada and the
United States on a regular basis, I thought it was time to take a look at a
study that examines the impact of the oil sands mining process on the ecosystem
adjacent to the mined area in the Athabasca region of Northeastern Alberta.

Unfortunately,
a piecemeal approach to environmental monitoring in the region has made it
difficult for scientists to determine the condition of the Athabasca region
prior to the advent of industrial-scale mining making it difficult to measure
the impact of the oil industry on the ecosystem since there is no baseline from
which to measure. A recent study by a group of scientists at
Canada's Queen's University uses an interesting and indirect approach to see
the impact of 50 years of oil sands development by looking at lake sediment
records, an idea that is quite appealing to the geoscience community.

Let's start
by looking at the size of the impacted area noting that, for scale, the main north-south road running between Fort McMurray and the southernmost mining site is a four-lane highway:

Roughly 97
percent of Canada's current proven reserves of oil are found in northern
Alberta and Saskatchewan, representing the world's third largest oil reserves.
In 1980, oil production from the region was approximately 100,000 BOPD
and reached 1.6 million BOPD in 2011 with projections showing that the rate
will reach 2.273 million BOPD by 2020. Obviously, as you can see from the
satellite image, the impact on the landscape is already significant with loss
of habitat and resulting changes to water quality.

While the
impact that we can see is disturbing, it is what we can't see that may pose a
greater risk. The techniques used to process the oil-laden sand releases
contaminants, many of which are carcinogens and rank among the top ten
hazardous substances including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs that
are produced by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass.

PAHs are a
group of over 100 chemicals that are formed as a result of the incomplete
burning of coal, oil, natural gas, garbage and even tobacco and charbroiled
meat. These particles can attach themselves to either dust particles or
sediment and, in the case of lakes, will settle to the bottom. Studies
show that PAHs can cause harmful effects on skin, body fluids and the ability
to fight disease and that they can be reasonably expected to be carcinogenic according to the Agency for
Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Back to the
study. As I noted earlier, historical background records of PAH levels in
the region have been generally lacking to this point. The oil sands
industry-funded Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program (RAMP) which was
established in 1997 suggests that PAH levels in the Athabasca River Delta
(where the Athabasca River that flows right through the mined area empties into
Lake Athabasca) have risen by 30 percent between 1999 and 2009 and yet, there
was no significant increase in PAH levels at their control sites. Other
studies have suggested that elevated PAH levels in the Athabasca watershed are
related to natural erosion of the oil-sands bearing strata as it outcrops along
local rivers.

If not
through erosion, how do the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons get from the mined
area to nearby fresh water bodies? As the PAHs are emitted from the oil
sands upgraders, they are picked up by the wind and carried aloft, the PAHs may
also be picked up by the wind from the area being actively mined or from ash
created by local forest fires.

To assist
the researchers in their quest to determine the pre-mining or background PAH
level, they selected five lakes within a 35 kilometre radius of the mining and
upgrading sites and an additional lake that was located 90 kilometres northwest
of the upgrader. Here is a map showing the location of the lakes under
study and their relative location to the mined areas (in pink):

Since the
scientists are well versed in the study of paleolimnology (the study of past
conditions and the history of lakes as recorded in the layers of preserved
sediment found at the bottom of lakes), they have the ability to determine the
age of each of the layers.

The
researchers noted that in the five nearby lakes, the level of PAH concentration
began to rise in the years between 1966 and 1972 with three of the lakes
showing an exponential increase in the concentration level. Since
the mined area has increased from about 40 hectares (100 acres) in 1970 to
about 71,500 hectares (177,000 acres) in 2010, this is not terribly surprising.
As well, lakes to the east of the Athabasca River (i.e. NE20, NE 13 and
SE 22) (in the downwind direction) show a marked increase in contamination
compared to those to the west of the mined area (i.e.NW35 and SW22) after the
mid-1960s as shown on this diagram:

This would
indicate that as the prevailing winds blow across the upgrading facilities and
surface-mined areas, they pick up PAH in the form of dust particles from
upgrader emissions and areas where overburden has been removed from the oil
sands-bearing formations.

What is even
more interesting is that even the lake located 90 kilometres to the northeast
(i.e. far upwind) is showing an increase in PAH concentration since the late
1960s and early 1970s.

While
environmentalists are raising alarm bells about the impact of increased oil
sands mining on global climate change, it is clear from this study that the
impact on the environment goes far beyond the increased emission of greenhouse
gases. Not only is the increased level of PAHs in lake sediments cause
for concern, the process of upgrading the oil sands results in the release of
both sulphur and nitrogen oxides, key components of acidic precipitation, a
situation which is creating even more stress for the Athabasca ecosystem.

As shown on this graph, as oil production sourced from the
mining of oil sands ramps up from 1.6 million BOPD today to 2.27 million BOPD
over the next 20 years in reaction to an opening of additional markets for
Alberta's synthetic crude, the mined area is most likely to increase in size
and scope, resulting in a local ecological situation that will not improve:

5 comments:

Yes, thank-you too. Be good if you could do another post, somehow shortening it. Unfortunately most people's reading level is about grade 6-8, and it is most people that need to be reading this stuff or watching it on YouTube.

I surfed here from the CBC article, "First Nations Say they will fight oil sands, pipeline" Mar. 20, 2013. We all need to start standing behind the Native People's to stop the rape of our land. It all boils down to values and how you choose to implement them or what form of energy you choose to invest in. It's values plain and simple. It is repulsive when Conservatives use "jobs and economy" as bribes, veiled as valid argument.

good post but would appreciate some indication of what currently acceptable levels of PAH are considered to be amd what known toxic levels are. since there are some PAH's in the area already from natural erosion, perspective strengthens the case that can be carried to others.

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About Me

I have been an avid follower of the world's political and economic scene since the great gold rush of 1979 - 1980 when it seemed that the world's economic system was on the verge of collapse. I am most concerned about the mounting level of government debt and the lack of political will to solve the problem. Actions need to be taken sooner rather than later when demographic issues will make solutions far more difficult. As a geoscientist, I am also concerned about the world's energy future; as we reach peak cheap oil, we need to find viable long-term solutions to what will ultimately become a supply-demand imbalance.